Contents

Synopsis

Merrett Frey is approaching the ruins of Oldstones with the ransom for his half-brother's (Stevron Frey's) grandson Petyr Pimple. He is considering all the ill luck throughout his life, starting as a squire, where in a battle against the Kingswood Brotherhood he got hit on the head so hard he was unable to ever truly fight again, which left him unable to reach knighthood. His father has always mocked him as "Merrett Muttonhead", and all he was good for during the Red Wedding was to drink the Greatjon under the table.

Merrett recollects how his father ordered the massacre of the Starks at Edmure Tully’s wedding, but it was Lame Lothar and Roose Bolton who had masterminded the whole affair. He considers how things at the Twins will turn worse for him when his father dies, as Ryman stands to inherit, and his sons Edwyn and Black Walder after him. Merrett feels that if he could accomplish this task, maybe his luck would change for the better, considering that Petyr is Ser Ryman’s son. However, he has failed at everything in his life, including his role in keeping the Greatjon too drunk to fight. The man killed or maimed four men, and it took eight to finally get him in chains.

When he reaches the site of King Tristifer’s sepulcher, he finds the outlaws who captured Petyr. They surround him and take the gold he carried for the ransom. Merrett demands to see Beric Dondarrion, but Lem and Tom inform him that the Lightning Lord was needed elsewhere. They lead him to the tree from which Petyr Pimple is hanging, and then Lem ties a noose around Merrett’s neck. Sick with fear after they have lied about the ransom and now mean to hang him, Merrett pleads that he had nothing to do with the Red Wedding, and that they have no witness. However, Tom Sevenstrings steps aside to reveal a woman with grey skin and a hideous scar across her neck, a woman Merrett knows to be dead, having seen his brothers slit her throat and dump her naked body in the river. Her eyes are terrible to behold: they see him, and they hate him. Lem tells him that she can’t speak, but she nods when Lem asks if Merrett was involved. Merrett opens his mouth to plead, but the noose chokes off his words.